The 9 best places to eat in Reading, ranked
Plates of small dishes on a Reading restaurant table
Nine restaurants I actually book, ordered by how often I go and how rarely I regret it.
1. Clay's Hyderabadi Kitchen
Clay's on London Street is the best restaurant in Reading and one of the best Indian restaurants in the south of England. It's Hyderabadi, not the generic north-Indian curry-house menu — meaning proper haleem, kachi biryani cooked to order in a sealed pot, and dosas from the Tamil coast. Book two weeks ahead for a Friday or Saturday. Mains £16-22, biryani for two at £38 and worth every pound.
The room is small (40 covers), the service is genuinely warm, and the wine list is chosen to work with heat rather than to fight it. Order the haleem starter, the guntur chilli chicken, and either the mutton biryani or the paneer 65. Skip the naans — the flatbreads here play a different role than at a Brick Lane place. If you eat one meal in Reading, eat this one.
2. Pepe Sale
Pepe Sale on Queens Walk has done Sardinian food in Reading since 1993 and it's still the best Italian in town. The room is unfussy — checked tablecloths, family photographs, no music — and the cooking is the opposite of the London small-plates trend: full plates, proper portions, £16-24 mains. The malloreddus with sausage ragù is what regulars order; the wild boar special when it's on is why I come back.
Bookings essential Friday and Saturday, walk-in usually fine midweek. Two courses with a glass of wine comes in around £45 a head, which is fair for cooking of this quality. Not the place for a quick lunch — service is deliberate and portions are large. Go hungry, plan two hours, don’t skip the seadas with honey for dessert.
3. Kungfu Kitchen
Kungfu Kitchen on Friar Street is the Sichuan restaurant that stopped me travelling to London for Sichuan food. The menu runs long, the English menu is a subset of the Chinese one, and the dry-fried green beans, mapo tofu, and cumin lamb are all done with proper heat and proper technique. Mains £12-18. The room is fluorescent-lit and functional; you’re here for the food.
Order more than you think you need — dishes are shareable and the rice is good. The dan dan noodles and the twice-cooked pork belly are the two things I get every visit. Not the place for a first date or a business dinner, but the honest best-value cooking in Reading if you want dinner for two under £50 including beer. No bookings; queue after 7.30pm on weekends.
4. Perch and Pike, South Stoke
Fifteen minutes north of Reading by car, or the train to Goring plus a 20-minute walk. The Perch and Pike is the gastropub I recommend when someone wants the honest English country pub lunch — flint building, log fire, proper roast beef Sunday lunch at £22, a short daily menu chalked up rather than printed. Booking essential for Sundays; two weeks ahead in summer.
The seasonal menu changes every fortnight. Expect pheasant in October, asparagus in May, mackerel in July, and always something from the Chilterns game larder in season. The wine list is short and well-chosen with several bottles under £30. Not cheap — expect £45-55 a head with a starter and a glass of wine — but you’re paying for cooking that matches anything at the same price in Henley or Marlow.
5. Bakery House
Bakery House on London Street (three doors from Clay's) is the Lebanese restaurant that punches above its price point. Mezze £5-7 each, grills £14-18, a proper mixed grill for two at £38. The room is bright, family-run, and it's my default lunch when I want something quick, healthy and reliable. No booking for lunch, worth booking for Friday dinner.
Order the halloumi, the batata harra, the fattoush, and either the shish taouk or the lamb kofta. The bread is baked in the taboon oven at the back and served warm. Cash-free, tips go to staff. Two people can eat well for £45 including a bottle of Lebanese red. If Clay's is booked out, this is where I go instead.
6. The Lyndhurst
The Lyndhurst on Queens Road is Reading's best neighbourhood pub-with-food. Proper cask ale (Loddon and West Berkshire always on), a menu that runs to about ten dishes, and pricing that hasn’t got carried away — mains £15-19, burger and chips £14. The room is Victorian pub with the walls left alone, no exposed filaments, no reclaimed anything.
The Sunday roast is what to come for — beef, pork, or a nut roast that's not an afterthought, £18 with all the trimmings, proper Yorkshire. Book by Thursday for a Sunday table. Midweek there's a fair bar menu until 9pm and quiz on Tuesdays. Twenty minutes' walk from the station through the university district — worth the walk to get out of the town-centre chains.
7. Buon Appetito
Buon Appetito on Kings Road is the honest Italian for a Tuesday-night pizza when you don’t want to think about it. Wood-fired oven, dough proved 48 hours, £11-15 pizzas that are properly Neapolitan — leopard-spotted, wet in the middle, folded not sliced. Pasta from £13. BYO wine at £8 corkage which is worth knowing.
Not fine dining and doesn’t pretend to be. Walk-in usually fine except Friday and Saturday when you should book. The Diavola and the carbonara are what I order. Kids welcome and the staff are patient with them. Two adults and two kids eat here for under £70 including drinks, which is increasingly hard to say in Reading in 2026.
8. Thames Lido
Thames Lido on Napier Road is the only restaurant on the list where the setting does as much work as the food. It's a restored 1902 ladies' swimming pool with the pool still there, heated, still swimmable, and the restaurant wrapped around it. Booking essential, mains £22-32, worth doing once for a birthday or an anniversary rather than as a regular.
The cooking is Mediterranean — Spanish and Moroccan more than Italian — and it's good rather than great, which is fine given that half the pleasure is the room. The lunch menu is better value than dinner (two courses £26). Book the poolside tables not the mezzanine. Combine with a swim beforehand (£28 non-members, wet towel provided) for the full experience.
9. Namaste Kitchen
Ninth on the list because Reading has Clay's and Namaste Kitchen needs to accept that comparison exists. But taken on its own terms it's a very good Nepali and north Indian restaurant on Erleigh Road — proper momos, chargrilled sekuwa, and a thali (£16.50) that is the best lunch under £20 in this town. The room is small and unshowy.
Order the chicken momos, the goat sekuwa, and the dal bhat if you want to eat like a Nepali not a tourist. BYO with £5 corkage. Twenty minutes' walk from the station through the university. Booking not essential midweek. If you’re doing a Reading food weekend — Clay's Friday, Namaste Kitchen for a proper Nepali Saturday lunch — you’ll eat as well as anywhere on the M4.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Marlow.
The Perch and Pike at South Stoke if you’ll drive 15 minutes; the Lyndhurst if you want to walk from town; the Bull at Sonning if you want the postcard riverside setting and don’t mind paying £26 for the beef. Book all three by Thursday — Reading Sunday roasts fill up.
Clay's Hyderabadi Kitchen for the best food, Thames Lido for the best room, Pepe Sale for the most relaxed evening. All three take bookings two-plus weeks out for weekends. If you want white tablecloths and a tasting menu, drive 25 minutes to Marlow for the Hand and Flowers — Reading doesn’t do that format.
Kungfu Kitchen serves until 10.30pm, later on weekends. Bakery House takes last orders at 10pm. Most of the rest close their kitchens at 9 or 9.30pm which is early by London standards. For post-10pm food in Reading you’re looking at the Turkish grills on Oxford Road rather than sit-down restaurants.
